Tommy Davidson

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
And this ain't no j lob Ashton because he's crazy retalented.

Speaker 2 (00:03):
Right.

Speaker 1 (00:04):
So I saw her at the upfront. It's me and
Danny DeVito and he said, damn winner one place over
you know it, right. I'm like, yeah, I know her.
So I go over there and I'm like, what's up?

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Girl?

Speaker 1 (00:14):
You blew up?

Speaker 2 (00:15):
What is going on?

Speaker 1 (00:16):
She's like, hey, get some little carrot dip and I'm going,
you know what's in that characterip?

Speaker 3 (00:25):
You know?

Speaker 1 (00:25):
Because she showed dipping my ass all my life.

Speaker 4 (00:29):
Grinding all my life, sacrifice, hustle pad, the price, Want
a Slice?

Speaker 1 (00:34):
Got the bro Dieys to swap all my life. I've
been grinding all my life, all my life, the grinning
all my.

Speaker 4 (00:41):
Life, sacrifics, hustle pad to price, Want a Slice, got
the brother geist to swap all my life.

Speaker 1 (00:47):
I've been grinding all my life.

Speaker 2 (00:51):
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Speaker 2 (02:14):
Hello, welcome to another edition of Club Shah. I am
your host, Shannon Sharp. I'm also the proproud of Club Shasha,
and the guy that's stopping by for conversation no drinking
today is Emmy Award winner comedian actor, voice, actor, writer, producer, musician, director, author,
Been in the industry almost forty years. A friend of mine,
Tommy Davison, Talmy, How you doing, bro, I'm.

Speaker 1 (02:35):
Doing long, long, long, long time. Wait skip what you skip? Skip?
Skip skip?

Speaker 2 (02:50):
I love you that we never skipped scarp scap skip
for real, for real skip skip already for real? Already
you know we're in.

Speaker 1 (03:02):
We're in, We're in. Goodness, You're thankful stopping. That's love. Man.

Speaker 2 (03:05):
You you lightening it up. You like the scoreboarding. I
appreciate that. Yeah, you got your start. One of your
first gig you had at the Comedia. You performed in
the strip club. How you telling Joe's looking at their booty?
You see that? That was the darkness? You see that,
you see that.

Speaker 1 (03:23):
First one? Crap? You actually actually actually that was my
friend Howard Man up in my neighborhood. We grew up
in the same project. We knew each other since we
were eight, and we lived pretty a rough neighborhood, you know.
And I had got a job at a Romata Inn

(03:44):
when I was nineteen as an assistant chef, as a chef,
as an assistant yet, right, but I got paid, you know,
paid proparably with that right at nineteen. Okay, So I
called Howard and I said, Howard, you know I got
this job at the Reminter Inn. And Howard said, you
about the stupidest I'd ever seen in my life. You
can be in Hollywood writing your own ticket. You can

(04:07):
be like Eddie Murphy, do your own movies, do all
that stuff. Like you just mad. And I got a job, right,
you know what I mean. He's like, nah, man, you
should be on the stage. I don't want to hear nothing. Right.
So he called me and said, hey, I got He
called me on my phone at home. When you have
cell phone, you know, I got you an opening to
go down to the Penthouse to do a show. I'm

(04:30):
like the Penthouse. The Penthouse is the worst strip club
in the world. Okay. The girls got bullet holes in
the ass, The guards that are out front got shirts
on the that's say on the back, don't shoot them, okay.
So I'm like, I ain't going down there. He said,
he gonna give you five minutes, you know. So he
comes over to my house in February's freezing. I got

(04:52):
my dots and beat two ten. Ready, boom, the radi
rat of breaks. Right, the radiator breaks. He gets right
back on the bus like nothing, I'll be back next week.
He comes back next week. My radiators fixed said let's go.
So we go down to this club and you know,
the manager comes out, you know, says him, and know
he's liked, yeah, that's my man. You know you got

(05:13):
five minutes, man, And so I'm going, well, Howard, what
do you want me to do? He said, I don't
care what you do, just get on that mic and
say something. I was, all right, I got up here.
Had you worked out anything?

Speaker 5 (05:26):
No?

Speaker 1 (05:27):
No, he just said, he just said, hey, he knows
me from the first thing. I said. They laughed, and
I'm sitting here with you now.

Speaker 2 (05:36):
It was like that, did you all did you always
want to be and show biz because you took a
job as an assistant shif Were you running away from this?

Speaker 1 (05:45):
What was going on?

Speaker 4 (05:46):
No?

Speaker 1 (05:47):
I wanted to be a singer. That was my thing.
I started with the Jackson five, and I played in
bands and I was I had grown men coming over
and asking my mom can he come and gig in
our band? So that was my thing. I was gonna
be big music star. I didn't really like comedy that much.
I like Prior because he'll make you laugh no matter what. Right,
But I'm a big fan of Ohio players and the Eagles,

(06:10):
and that was my whole steelo. I watched Carol Burnett
and I'm into the music, right, and so it didn't
look like that was gonna happen. You know. When I
got about fourteen, I want to do what everybody else did,
you know, like play football and played basketball and all
this stuff. Well that ended when I was fifteen because
I went because I went away for one summer. One
summer and I came back and everybody everybody was bigger.

Speaker 2 (06:36):
I'm talking about three times my size, and and I
went in there to one practice and I was like, Okay,
that's it.

Speaker 1 (06:41):
So that career is over, right. And so I always
had singing, and that's one of my weapons that I
have in my arsenal right, you know, but comedy, I
didn't know I really had it. I found out because
the teacher would go, oh, so you're the comedian, right,
you going down to the principal's office. Okay, you know
you're gonna put up the Black Power fis and we're

(07:02):
doing the national anthem, you know. So the comedy came
out of my mother, who's white, right, and my family,
who's white, who comes down to the elementary school and
says he'll learn the national anthem. Right. She used to
like to do this. But that's all he knows about himself.
He knows say it loud. I'm black and I'm proud.

(07:22):
He knows who he is, right. But you can teach
him anything because he'll pick up on it. So that's
that's I just was just funny because I love happiness.
I love laughing, and I come from the laugh in
his neighborhood in the world in DC Summer Hill, and
we we will tear you up right. So it was
already there, but a lot, a lot more was there

(07:46):
than I can ever imagine. So were you a class clown?
I think I was. I was a class clown?

Speaker 2 (07:52):
On on on?

Speaker 1 (07:54):
Or were you trying to get attention? No, I was
a class clown on on steroids. Okay, I didn't have
to get no attention because I finished it, finished my
work so fast that then I was just like I
was just balling, you know what I mean. It's it's
like I loved to see people happy, you know what
I mean. Like the teacher would go, hey, I'll be
chewing gum when you you know, she said, hey, do

(08:15):
you have enough gun for everybody?

Speaker 2 (08:16):
Else?

Speaker 1 (08:16):
I go, She'll do got to hear juicy fruit plenty pack,
get out of here. You know, I had all the answer,
you know what I mean, And so my timing was
already h impeccable. You know, I watched everybody do everything,
and I didn't know they were even impressions. That's the
reason why my mother kept saying, man, shut up. I

(08:37):
did Algira boom boom, damn. She'd be she said, could
you shut that up? Until she saw him on TV?
She said, do that again? You know, so that that
that was me anyway, you know, stallone was my husband.

Speaker 2 (08:56):
Why you're living around my house? My house statement the
ready stage, Mick, I never asked you for no favors.

Speaker 1 (09:04):
Had me to fight to fight, I'll fight, the fight
will be there Mick and it's just stuck like and
I can and I don't really practice. If I hear
something long enough, it's gonna register, you know what I mean.
Like Obama, I couldn't get him, so I said, just
shut up and just listen to him. Next thing you know,
he was on trade shop and he's having a good time.

(09:25):
He's enjoying the warmth of the fireplace. The only thing
missing here is some marshmallows. And you have Somers in here,
you know what I mean. I'm not talking about the
comedian Somemore. I'm talking about Smarts. So from the script club,
then you start doing what? Yeah, then I started doing.

(09:46):
I opened up for singers. I didn't get to a
club for a year. So Patty LeBell saw me. She said,
you're incredible. Kenny g saw me, he said you're incredible.
Fred Jackson saw me. You're incredible. Luther Vandross and need
A Baker went on their tour because I did singing
impressions too, you know, and that's what helped me a lot.
You know, Rick James, you.

Speaker 2 (10:07):
Know, Wow, I didn't know that.

Speaker 1 (10:10):
I love you just the same now, Rich I love you.

Speaker 2 (10:14):
Beeby Bebi be Babeba never read don't play no games,
you know, so.

Speaker 1 (10:21):
I can go hard, right, and so that's what it was.
But people were saying, you need to play in the clubs, right, right,
And I'd never been in the club. The first night
I went to a club, Sinbad was in town. Right,
Sinbad had won Star searchmember all the time. Yes, So
all the comments were at one club in DC. That's
the night I met Martin and Dame Chappelle for the

(10:44):
first time. Wow, we're all from the same city, right,
And so that's the point I started working clubs. But
the big break was I won the Apollo. I didn't
win it right, but I want it right, you know
I got. I don't know how you fixed an audience.
The dude did it?

Speaker 2 (10:59):
You know?

Speaker 1 (10:59):
There was a singer Day Pizza and there was me
and you do it by applause. So the guy goes
day Pizza, the Tommy davis.

Speaker 2 (11:09):
Day pieces Tommy dayson and then he goes, all right, guys,
all right, do you want Tommy Davidson from Washington, DC?
Or do you went Dave from New York City? And
I was like, what do you got you out of there?

(11:30):
So how did you so you go from that and
you auditioned. You were the first to audition for a
living color correct. I was the first to get the part.
Wow to get the part. My audition didn't go too well. Yeah,
I heard you, Bob, I heard you based, You're right,
I based.

Speaker 1 (11:50):
But I based that on the look in their face
when I was done, because I was going up the
room and it was like, hey, man, see ron Man,
so what what did they ask you to do?

Speaker 2 (12:01):
So? So you going in for an auditional live right? Income? Right?

Speaker 1 (12:04):
I thought I didn't know what improv was, right, right,
So I'm going to try to improv, right. So they
asked me crazy questions like you're drunk Puerto Rican cab driver, right,
trying to talk to your customers, you know, eco, if
you want the who, if you want the well down down?
I don't go down down, you know. And now I
did all these things quick and it was over. That

(12:25):
was the audition I didin' getting no feedback, and it
was over the reason why I got it because I
was so strong in stand up. I was so strong
in standing. I had that football principal right, you know. Repetition, repetition, repetition, repetition, repetition, repetition,
and then stuff starts becoming like an instinct. Right. So
I was thirtieth that night at the thirty of the

(12:46):
hottest comics in the business, Legozamo, Jim Carrey, everybody, Jamie found,
everybody wanted the show, right, and there I was right thirtieth. Okay,
and as I'm on the sidewalk because I never watched
other other comedians, you know what I mean, I just
kind of did my own thing. And my manager kept

(13:07):
coming out and going, you can't do this bit because
somebody did that one, right, And then they come out
again and say, you can't do that bit because such
and such did that one. So my show was getting
a little bit shorter shorter as I go, but I
was confident in what I had because we always worked.
We worked on comedy with a discipline. My manager had

(13:27):
to stop watch. I know how much two minutes is
six minutes is an hour forty six minutes two minutes,
you know, just by running through my stuff, and I
knew my stuff really really well. I hated it. I
hated it that he take me out to the pool
and make me work on my stand up when no
one's around and get the time in But I'm glad
he did. Did you know that you were a part

(13:48):
about to be part of history now? Now? Not at all.
I knew that the real thing about the whole thing
was I actually was about to go home.

Speaker 2 (14:01):
You know.

Speaker 1 (14:01):
I had had enough of Hollywood. Man, I've been here.
I kicked ass for three years in the clubs I had.
I had a job back home, I had. I had
a selica GT A seventy eighth that I got from
my mother's credit union. And I still had my beach
ut and I had an apartment, you know, with water wall,
carpet and a cat, you know, and plenty of roaches though,

(14:22):
I mean, are you mine? You just take the hamper
and shake it out in the street every couple of months,
you know what I mean. They love wicker, by the way.

Speaker 2 (14:29):
So so.

Speaker 1 (14:32):
I'm you know, I came out here to and I
was catching the bus right. You couldn't catch me on
the bus alive, boy, because we used to go to
do laundry on the bus, our groceries on the bus.
Life was the bus. And we lived in the winter too.
So I'm on the bus three a day, Okay, I'm

(14:53):
working up till one, I'm working up till till one
in the morning, and I'm up at like five, right,
Because once I get off around three years or something
like that, I start at the clubs and we hit
every club until no one was open no more. And
they were saying to me for three years, and I

(15:16):
was turning it out. They were saying, You're not what
we're looking for. You're not what we're looking for. I mean,
so what were they looking for? Well, it looked like
all the white comments weren't getting that comment, and they
weren't get getting standing ovations. So I surmised that it
was that, you know, and some things to me are

(15:38):
like societal rules that are in between the rules. Like
I used to be late to school. My sister looks
like Cidey Brady, okay, all right, my brother looked like
David Cassidy. I mean, I'll got be old, all right,
But I'd go to school late and she go to
school late. And the punishment for that was you have
to sign up for detention. She used to be able

(15:59):
to go straight to class and I had to sign
up for the t So here come my mother again.
I used to think she was crazy. She came sat
down with the principal, who was black. She said, okay,
so what the is the problem here? And he was
going work, what's going on? Miss David? So what's going
he said? She said, why does my daughter get to
go to class and my son have to sign up
for detention? And he said, well, we didn't know that

(16:19):
was your daughter. Man. She said, why does that make
any difference?

Speaker 2 (16:23):
You know?

Speaker 1 (16:24):
And he said, we'll get that straight. We'll get that straight.
But my mother does this, man, I said. She said,
you're coming with me today and I was like, oh, man,
here come one of these speeches. She took me to
the park. She sat me on a picnic bench, me
and her. She will talk to me. She said, I

(16:44):
need you to know something about the world you live in. Okay,
it's going to bother you, but it's a fact. She said,
your sister can actually be late, but you can't. If
you want to be successful in this rule, in this world,

(17:05):
you can't be late at all. It's just the way
it works, you know. And I hated that. I wanted
to cry, but she was right. So I thought it
was that rule. I just connected to that. But I
kept going and I started getting more and more I
won at the Comedy Store because finally I got a

(17:27):
shot in the main room. Right, okay, this is the
big night. Prior's there and Rich's there and everybody plays
that room, you know. And I got a call from
the Comedy Store and they said, you're in the main
room tonight and I said, oh, okay, who am I
hosting for? You're like, who am I bringing on MC?
And there was like, no, You're on the show.

Speaker 2 (17:46):
Wow.

Speaker 1 (17:46):
I was like what okay? So then who am I
hosting for? They said, no, you got thirty minutes. I said,
I got thirty minutes. Never got that thirty minutes, but
I could do an hour right right, thirty minutes. Who
else is on the show? They told me Eddie Murphy
and Richard Pryor. It's just y'all three. Wow, okay, riches

(18:06):
on first. It's two shows to night Friday and Saturday.
Eddie goes on first the first show Friday, uh and
and and on Prior to go second, and it's it's
splip flopped for the other right right, And then the
very next night it was the same thing. And how

(18:28):
did I do?

Speaker 4 (18:29):
What?

Speaker 1 (18:29):
How did you do? Don? Friends? Is is Asberry Tarking
then dropped back and hit his hit his receivers for
eighty yards in the third quarter. But then, but then
Larry Zoanka gave the Purple people the eater intergestion as

(18:51):
he used his helmet as a batter. Ram, Okay, my
old NFL film, you know what I mean? Yeah, it
was like the interception with John Persinda. Yeah, that that
the interception with with the with the with the David.
That's what it was. Because it was time. It was
my time.

Speaker 2 (19:10):
How was it? You mentioned you got Jim Carrey, who's
not Jim Carrey yet. You got Jamie Fox, who's not
Jamie Fox yet?

Speaker 1 (19:16):
Uh?

Speaker 2 (19:17):
You mentioned John Lego Zamore. I mean there's so many.
You got the Wighams, who would How was it? How
did the egos mesh? How did you divvy up time?
How did you determine who's going to do this kid,
who's gonna be with that person, who's going to be
with this person?

Speaker 1 (19:33):
Kind of like when you was with TD and and
McCaffrey and now yeah and they had never running back
out like he's coach now Tony Anthony Anthony Lee yet
just kind of how you felt, you know, you got
to play your game no matter what with the ball though, Yeah,
you want the ball, but.

Speaker 2 (19:52):
If you haven't success, everybody's gonna there's enough of the
pile of.

Speaker 1 (19:56):
Going around exactly exactly, you know what I mean. So
it's like, you know, when we got on that platform,
everything counted, and Keenan was smart. He knew how to
get the best out of this. He made us work
against each other, not in a negative way. But if
it's not funny, it won't make the show. Period. You

(20:17):
got to work with the writers yourself and write your
own sketches. You got to present your characters to us everybody,
to the writers, to the producers, to the actors. You
got to present it to everybody. You got to be
funny in that room, and that goes on the show.
Did you okay?

Speaker 2 (20:32):
Next, did you guys ever work together? Did you say okay, Jamie,
hey check this out? What do you think about this?

Speaker 4 (20:38):
This?

Speaker 3 (20:38):
And this?

Speaker 1 (20:38):
Or did you get with Jim Carre said Jim, what
do you think about this?

Speaker 2 (20:41):
David? David Alan grew also on that show, So did
you guys get together? And says okay, I think we'll
be great if.

Speaker 1 (20:48):
We do this. Yeah, but that happened with everybody in
living color. That's why we're special because we did it
with the cameramen, we did it with the makeup women,
we did it with the wardrobe people. Everybody had everybody
had a feedback. So when we were in when we
were in rehearsal, we were all giving each other.

Speaker 2 (21:07):
No, no, no, don't do that.

Speaker 1 (21:08):
Don't do that. Man, Remember you said the chicken before
you said no, don't say that. Don't don't say a
Pelican or duth Man, save the chicken. The chicken. Then
the chicken work, y'all right, So we're all in it together.
We're all into it. But that one sketch that you're
the lead of, that's your sketch.

Speaker 2 (21:22):
Right.

Speaker 1 (21:23):
So the more you were seeing what you know, what
I mean.

Speaker 2 (21:26):
The more less you got the opportunity you get for
the next episode to be up in the exactly exactly.

Speaker 1 (21:31):
It's like, who told me? This is Lonzo Hotsmith? You
know Lonzo? Yeah? Right, I told me. I said, you
can probably play right now. I couldn't. Well, I could
probably play right now. I could probably play. I could
probably play maybe a quarter, he said, But I ain't
got another training camp in me.

Speaker 2 (21:49):
Right.

Speaker 1 (21:50):
It's like that, He's like do right, do right, do right,
do right? People on your shoulder, the whole thing, you
know what I mean. And so it was that's what
it was.

Speaker 2 (21:59):
But how do you make how do you make it
funny a second and third time? Because like normally, like
say save that for the show, Y'll leave that on
the cunning room floor. So how if somebody's heard it,
because normally something is the only funny once, right, So.

Speaker 1 (22:14):
How do you like? Okay, and then make sure Yeah,
I think Kenny did that and he created a monster.
So he said, y'all get one take. You know, the
rest of it is yours. Don't never tell us that
we improved everything from that first take. Oh okay, it was.

Speaker 2 (22:33):
It was it.

Speaker 1 (22:34):
We had a competition going under the under the radar.
What can I say that you haven't heard before? That's
gonna make you laugh right in the middle of the sketch.
And we was doing that constantly, constantly, So if you
watch the show, Jim Carrey could be going, I just
a fire and fire like it and think that do
that again? Hold on, hold on. He caught a quick

(22:57):
quick one hand and he did a quick out you see,
and and you be over there going because I'm playing
this serious guy, Benny, and he's supposed to be in
my mansion, you know what I mean. But Jim Carrey
when he gets hit by the sushers, by the emergency squad,
he doesn't just go down like he's supposed to go
down the floor, you know, and then get up and

(23:18):
say his line, Tommy, I mean, Benny, I'm a FIREMUK show. Well,
when he goes down, he goes, I'm a fireman.

Speaker 2 (23:35):
Okay.

Speaker 1 (23:35):
Now the director is saying cut stop at Jim, stop
that we don't have time. We can't be I lost
my cell or ever. We don't have time. You know.
We got to get to the next thing. We're doing
Take two an action okay eight times and I'm in tears.

(24:00):
My eyes are swollen. Jim, you can't do it again,
he said, I got to. That's how we were. We
got so bad because Keena said, y'all can bust lose.
He got to the point where he was coming back
to us in the back and going damn. I got
winded by that.

Speaker 2 (24:16):
Jim. Let me breathe for a second. He came back
to the back and would say to us, you guys,
we're gonna lose the show. We're gonna lose the show.
If y'all keep doing that, We're gonna lose the show.
I can't keep these sensors off of you.

Speaker 1 (24:34):
I can't. You guys got to help me. Man and
he leave the room and we were like, yeah, right right,
you know what I mean, because that's why it was special.
People got the real thing when you found out. Why
do you think the show was canceled? I can only

(24:56):
I can only imagine because Keen is the one that knows.
But I just think that we weren't utilizing the whole cast,
you know, we at the point we only utilized became
m and certain players, you know what I mean. And
it didn't take away from the talent the group. But
that's what made the team, you know, So you know,

(25:19):
it was the thing that made in Living Color the
best was you didn't know what you were going to
see because there was so many different variations. So they
started seeing it in repetition, and I think what they
asked and this is only me being there and watching
and trying to be trying to be objective. They started
asking for new episodes, like you got to give us
something new, you know what I mean? Or we're going

(25:43):
to run reruns, and so he didn't feel too good
about that. That's his show, anyway, I would if I
were him, I said, I don't know if you were
to tell me what to do with my show, you
know what I mean. His job probably hard enough trying
to get everybody in there, you know what I mean,
and then deal with us on the I mean we
were hard. We were really hard, but we just wouldn't stop,

(26:05):
you know. And so I think that that's what happened.
But I don't really know because I wasn't there. You
were in the meeting with Fox, you know, I wasn't there, Pet,
you know Pet Dante? Yeah, right, Dante ends up leaving Minnesota.
All the players are like, hey, he was my best friend.

(26:26):
We used to have an orthanage together. There was you know,
I got introduced to the NFL years years ago, you know,
I got I got an NFL thing. And he ended
up leaving, And they said, well, what happened? He said, Man,
I went and talks to the owner, and that was
that he shared with some other people, you know, the

(26:47):
inside of whatever happened. But you're not really going to
know unless you were there. There, there wasn't podcast then
where you can get and once it's over you can
talk freely and I have to worry about you know,
the good old boy network. But so you're down and
none of that. You know, you can talk freely, but
you have to keep something to yourself.

Speaker 2 (27:04):
Then how how much from what you guys did then
would you be able to get away with? Now we
probably be on the air for about we'd probably be
on the air for about five minutes, you know what
I mean? Because we just gonna go for it. Yeah,
we're gonna, We're gonna. We're gonna be canceled. You know

(27:25):
by culture we canceled.

Speaker 1 (27:26):
Can cancel culture as soon as we know your air
nerve and cancel culture. You flow on the moon like
a balloon. Cancel culture. You know, never too late and
it's never too soon. Take it to me, is all
right to be canceled?

Speaker 2 (27:42):
Okay?

Speaker 1 (27:43):
But in truth it shouldn't happen to us?

Speaker 2 (27:47):
Why?

Speaker 1 (27:49):
Because how you gonna do culture? Cancel of us? How
are you gonna cancel culture? We are culture? How do
you cancel something you are? We're everything that you are? Right,
we were emphasized gays, We emphasize on Mexicans, Asians, whites.

(28:13):
We're a societal show that shows each and every aspect
of the humor and the love that our country has
that binds us, right, you see what I mean? And
that's what made us really really good. There was really
no division on the show. It was all black and white.

Speaker 4 (28:28):
You know.

Speaker 1 (28:29):
Black people, if you ask them in a consensus what
their favorite shows are, they probably put Andy Griffith first.
Uh Lucy Beverly Hill Billies, I can go on to
Buying a Man. You know, it ain't just good Times.
And you guys, white people, what was your favorite show?
They probably put, Uh, what's what's the one of them?

(28:51):
We're moving all up? Move. They put that first. They
put the Jefferson first. They put good Time a good
time for you know, we all are always laughed at
the same thing. If we didn't, Al Joson would have.

Speaker 2 (29:04):
Never had a career.

Speaker 1 (29:05):
You know. Way back then, that's how everybody talked. It
was an accepted thing with blackface, you see, And that's
how that's that's how we got to that stage in culture.
Was because them boys came home from Vietnam, right, We
got bussing, women lived, got their live going, you know,
Mexicans got their rights, you know, the farm pickers and

(29:27):
that whole thing. It was just this whole culture thing
that happened in the seventies where it was cool and hip.
It was actually hip to know other people's culture, right.
It actually was cool when you held hands with people
and you said the word love and peace. Love and
peace were in style, right right, the big old peace
sign and right on, brother. You see that coming from

(29:48):
both the hippies and and and us. You see. So
we got to that point, right, and so this was
an outgrowth of that where we were doing. We did Lucy,
but we did at our style, right, you see what
I mean. We did the Honeymooners, We did our you know,
we did parodies of everything that we saw when we
were kids, right, and everything that we saw in our

(30:09):
Hollywood adult life movies Three Champs and the Baby, you know,
me and Jamie used to do that, those two bodyguards
right right. Uh so I thought, you you you you
you you you ain't Tupac. And yeah, you ain't Tupac
because if you tubac, you'd be coming here like like
like Drake even here right. Well that was actually from Rainman.

(30:35):
The sketchules called main man. So it's just a black
version of Rainbter. So we were just reflection of what
culture really is. And didn't it change everything? It did?
Nothing's been the same, right, right? The corporations went to
the bank right in the billions by now right, Gatorade, Nike,

(30:58):
uh PlayStation what you know, went to the moon, right,
the sneaker boom went. We were hip hop before hip
hop got corporate. So we launched that revolution, and then
we launched the revolution out in the suburbs where they're
all white kids, a few black ones.

Speaker 2 (31:15):
Right.

Speaker 1 (31:15):
Then we launched a revolution in the inner city schools
because those kids couldn't believe they were having that, and
they were seeing themselves in roles, you see. So they
probably could try to cancel culture us if we came out,
But I don't think it would be nothing pretty right,
you know what I mean? And that's not what we

(31:35):
were about, right you know, So if we can't talk
about nothing, we might as well talk about nothing until
a's alright to talk about something, you know what I mean?

Speaker 2 (31:43):
Do you feel Keenan gives the credit he deserves that
family and what he a living color? You had to
see it, you had to, I mean, back there, you
you recorded it, or you found a way to get home,
but you had to see what you guys were going
to do.

Speaker 1 (32:04):
Does he get the credit that he deserves? No, No,
And even I give him credit that I didn't that.
I didn't really realize until after the show. I didn't
know how much of a genius he was when it
comes to comedy. I didn't know his people's skills were
so I mean amazing. Okay. As a producer, he was

(32:28):
an unbelievable writer. He's unbelievable director. He'd already direct two movies,
three movies to do. That show. His family make you
jealous because when they see each other, even the guys
kiss each other on the cheek when they see each other,
I'm like that, you know, it's like hey brother, hey,
you know, and they hug for a minute. You got

(32:50):
what is this family? You know what I mean? So
they had love too, you know, out of New York City.
So he got a street sense, you know, but when
college got a book sense, but he got his own sense,
got good sense. His mom and his daddy hard working,
you see. But it's his genius. I give you an example.
We were doing. He asked me you know, we had

(33:13):
to come up with stuff because she would get on
the show. So say we do something. So he said, Tommy,
sitting there everybody looking through this group, Tommy, do you
have Michael Jackson's sketch? I said yep, And then my
mouth was like I told him yes. He said I
wanted tomorrow. I said, ooh. I ran upstairs. I grabbed
the writer, man read and the writer wrote the song, out,

(33:33):
wrote the sketch. Out. I called the guy who does
all the music. I went right from the job to
his house. We stayed up until six in the morning
and record that thing. He recorded it, put it together.
We took it in that afternoon. We put that sketch
on his feet, you know, with all the stufff cameras
and everything, you know, because Keenan had heard the song,

(33:54):
he said, let's do it and set up all the
other production stuff. So we're in there. I'm singing the
song and walking through and then stop, do this part, stop,
do this part, and we do all this stuff right.
We're running plays right, just to get it in, get
it in your you know, after the first snap, you
got to run. It's in you, right. So this is

(34:16):
when Kenny comes in. Keeny comes in when all that's done,
and Keena just goes, do this, do this today. So
Keena comes over, he goes, hmm, okay, Tommy, when you're
when you're walking down the sidewalk from here to here,
don't just walk anybody got any chalk. We're gonna put
a hopscotch there for you see hopscotch from there to here. Okay.

(34:36):
So then when you go down the rest of the
rest of the sidewalk, you're gonna get to here, right,
this is the edge of the sidewalk. So do we
have a fan, one of those big giant fans. Yes,
we do. We're gonna I'm gonna have a bunch of
leaves and win just blow you back. Okay. When you
go to hit the car window, don't just hit the
car window, go.

Speaker 2 (34:59):
You know what?

Speaker 1 (35:00):
And then he came up with that last line. You know,
he said, you know he might black and white, and
Keena said, uh, you're under arrest. The police says you're
under rest. And then I took at the chemera like
it's hand black. Right. He just he just tops it off, right,
he just tops it off. You knew somebody like that
who don't get credit. And right, y'all wasn't supposed to

(35:23):
win nothing, right, Yeah, all y'all played regal football. All
y'all were all yaard, just like any other team. Right,
But he was able to find a way to make
it work to get y'all working together and for y'all,
for y'all to buy into your roles. Right, And look
what happened twice I saw in that Atlanta game. Right,

(35:44):
Atlanta came down twice, rap back back, They going for
the third one. All right, we're coming in this first quarter, right,
So they ran to play and Romanowski blitzed and just
missed him by inch. Somebody on the sideline must and said,
do it again, right, because they came and did it again,
you know, wrong.

Speaker 2 (36:02):
Got them?

Speaker 1 (36:03):
Damn It changes the emotion on the sideline. You ain't
look back at that momentum. That momentum came back. You know.
It's kind of like the same science.

Speaker 2 (36:12):
The writers on the show. How much credit does the
writers get because you said a lot of what you
did was between you and the writers, and so you
guys have to be in sync. It's just like Rogers
and Ginger Rogers and Fredi Staire Ye Yeah, she had
the hardest job because she had to do what he
would do it backwards. She had to do it in
heals right, right, right, So they're writing this, you know, So,

(36:38):
so how difficult was it their job? Because they've got
to write according to you because what might be good
for you might not be good for Jamie, right, David
Allen Green or Jim carry Zamble.

Speaker 1 (36:49):
So how was that?

Speaker 2 (36:52):
And you're writing with different guys all the day.

Speaker 1 (36:54):
It's not the same writer, right, It's got to be
a personal process, you know. The best best writers know
all that, And so they'll do their own homework. You know,
they'll go, They'll tell me, I didn't write this, But
how would you say that? You know if you say
that like that, because I'm thinking if you said it
this way, then that would be the opposite of how
you would say it. So, you know, and I'll say, well,

(37:16):
let's try and both when we go to the rehearsal.
If one don't work out the other one. They were
there every inch of the way. When they stopped something,
one of the writers would come in and go, don't
forget that. You get that about the Purple Bunny Man.
You can't forget that. Come on, man, it's killing like that.
And so they were involved in it. I'll give you
their credits. Okay, friends, mar Ten, how many shows are

(37:45):
they responsible for? They actually were the executive They are
actually the executive producers of the hottest and best shows
that lasted the longest in Hollywood. Are writers?

Speaker 2 (37:57):
Wow?

Speaker 1 (37:57):
And we had a veritable difference in every writer with
Franklin Najai. We had. We had we had black writers,
White writers, Jewish writers, Spanish writers, with all kinds of writers, right, okay,
and they were all and a lot of them were
really really smart kids, right and went to college and
with degrees. And this is the thing. So they're bringing
a lot of they're bringing a lot of intelligence to

(38:22):
the sketches, right, you know what I mean. They can
match the intelligence, the natural intelligence of us. What we
had to deal with with this country. We got to
be real brilliant because we was like, well, we can't
do nothing, but we got to do something right, and
we get that something done.

Speaker 2 (38:36):
You know, they look at him, people say, well, there
was a lot of nepotism going on because he had
his brothers in, he had his sisters in. And I
heard Marlon says like f F nepotism. He says, I'm
doing this and if I can't putting my family on,
what the hell am I doing it for?

Speaker 1 (38:53):
And it's true and he's right about it, and he's
right about it. But let's just say, the receiver in
the game is your brother, right, all right, and it's
twenty five o'clock. You know, you got about two passeses
going to him and he'll dropped everything from game on back?

Speaker 2 (39:16):
Right?

Speaker 1 (39:17):
Who you going to just because you see what I'm saying.
We're on the field and we're playing a game, right,
you see what I'm saying. It wasn't like they weren't
doing their job and they were still getting roles. They
were performing right, but they got a chance to play, right.
There's a lot of people that were you know, we're
Juco and should have been in the league and you
know it, but it's a game. It's bigger than just
the actual activity. So once I saw that and realize

(39:42):
that if you're on the other end of it, and
that doesn't feel so good because you want to be
a part of it. With me personally, I just wanted
to be a part of the family, right, you know,
And I am right. And I am the first thing
his father said to me. His father loved me, his
whole family loved me. I got a movie. I was
the first one to get a big movie strictly business
with Halle Barrier, right, right, sah. A lot of people

(40:04):
were easy with that, and I was kind of like
a man. But when I went to the premiere, it's
me and Halle in in the limousine and we drive
up and we get out, and the rope is there
and all the people are there, and guess who's there.
His father and his father go to me, Tommy, Tommy,
Tommy Davison. Baby, he's proud of you, like he's a father,

(40:26):
you a son.

Speaker 2 (40:27):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (40:27):
And Kingan treated me like he was one of his brothers.
You know, I'm going through trouble or whatever. He'll say, Hey, man,
you gotta get that right. You know you work too hard.
I froze up on my first sketch on the Living College,
right because I realized I was on TV, so I'm
ready and I'm this comic that came from DC, and

(40:48):
I'm ready to do this sketch, right. And I saw
the rid the red the red dot on the camera,
and I was like, I turned into like a skull, right,
and I'm there, you know they can Tommy Tommy, Tommy Tommy.
And then finally Damon walked over to me. He put
his arm around me. Man, he said, nigga, you work

(41:12):
way too hard to get here. You over in that
apartment with your baby. You know, I'll watched you in
them clubs. All you got to do, just do it,
you know, you know, And that's how that's how they are.
So it's it's it's a half a dozen of one.
You know, it's a tough process because you wouldn't want
to win the game, right, But the way that the

(41:34):
game is played, you know, I don't care how you
slice it. It's team right and rolls. You know, you
don't get that stuff. I remember Denny Green when remember
when the Vikings were packed. They had Chris, they had Moss,
they had Robert you remember roberts Robertson. They had every

(41:55):
Jordan at t they had that defense, They had everything, Pep,
they had it all. They were the machine. And they
lost in the first round of Phoenix, you remember that,
And so they were broken because that was their year, right,
they should have been in Atlanta, right, I guess so right,
I guess they'd have been playing, y'all.

Speaker 2 (42:10):
Yeah. They lost to the Falcons in the championship game.
Yeah that was Renal Cunninghall.

Speaker 1 (42:14):
Right, and that okay, And that hurt me because I'm
a Minnesota fan. I'm that long story.

Speaker 5 (42:19):
So so how you gonna be they fan? You had
just came in to our Super Bowl party? Man got hey,
got a hey, man came pool, got out, budey Hey,
I'm a player, pay me. That was Neil Smith.

Speaker 1 (42:35):
I do.

Speaker 2 (42:36):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (42:36):
Neil was like, that's my man, and that that's when
I discovered. I learned through the players what the game
really is. It's a freaking war, man. It ain't no joke.

Speaker 2 (42:48):
You look at Jim. We're gonna talk about some of
the guys that came from the show. Jim, and he
was as big. I mean, the rains that he has
he's been tour the mask Truman Ship.

Speaker 1 (42:59):
I mean, you you get what he will think. Why
haven't he been liar?

Speaker 2 (43:03):
Liar?

Speaker 1 (43:04):
Why hasn't he been as active recently as he as
he was? I only know from my personal standpoint, he's
done what he wanted to do. He's he's hit his pinnacle.
He's made as much money as he can make or whatever. Right,
I just know him as a person, one of my
best friends, and he just wants to become a better
person and do better things.

Speaker 2 (43:24):
He has he has.

Speaker 1 (43:25):
He's about him a tremendous motivation. Yeah, it's about what's
going on on him and the inside, because he knows
that those outside things aren't going to fix you. So
he strives to just stay on what got him there, right,
you know, knowledge of his family, where he grew up,
you know, just just all of that stuff that counts.
You know, when I got in some of my final

(43:47):
not final interviews, but later when I had established myself,
I would have people ask me, you know, what was
your greatest accomplishment? And I started naming projects. Now I
just say my greatest accomplishment was being Barbara Davis's youngest son,
Tommy Wow, because that meant something. You know. My mother
was the kind of woman that would like, you know,

(44:07):
we was on welfare, you know, and and you know,
you know we coming up, We're coming up the stairs
with groceries, you know, and she would start giving the
little kids food. Man, some of them were so small
they could only carry one card and the milk you know,
and I used to say, what are you doing? I

(44:29):
used to think she was crazy, and she'd get up
in my face too, you mean, what am I doing?
I'm doing it? Ask me what I'm doing? You got
everything you need? I was like, yes, ma'am, Okay, I'm
proud to be her son, right because I still have
that in me. She was trying to show me the

(44:51):
universal law of exchange that if you give, you'll always
have a close hand. Can't receive or give. So she talked,
caught me that, and I realized that that's my greatest accomplished.
But now I can get an iron you know statue.
I'd like to have one, you know, without the smack
and without the Digham smack. I know, we call it

(45:13):
Digham smack.

Speaker 2 (45:14):
You almost got one? Yeah, I almost got one? Yeah before,
Yeah you lot have been before. Hey bring it up.

Speaker 1 (45:20):
But what's try to do? Is this club sha shape?
Yeah it is all right, it's cleb shache. So were talking.
We tell it all right. He at the Laker games,
what are y'all gonna do? And left them? Do you
know what I mean? Yeah? Left? Hold on. I'm like,
I'm like, I'm trying to forget that that that that's
South Carolina. Okay, that's a long story South Carolina. Are
you kidding me?

Speaker 2 (45:41):
So he had the edge of the car going what
what Which one of y'all want something? It's like, I'm like,
it ain't one of them.

Speaker 1 (45:48):
It's a whole. It's a whole.

Speaker 2 (45:50):
Just really quick about South Carolina? Okay, and I leave
it alone over Georgia.

Speaker 1 (45:53):
I know he was from Georgia, Georgie. No, my brother
went to South Carolina. Okay. No, y'all went from South Carolina. Okay,
then ain't gonna talk about it. Okay, we're gonna put
that back there. Okay, but I heard that there were
more players in the league from South Carolina than anywhere. No,
probably Texas, California, Florida, Georgia. We ended, okay, okay.

Speaker 2 (46:11):
What do you what are you?

Speaker 4 (46:13):
No?

Speaker 1 (46:14):
No, I do it. But it's like I forgot what
I was saying. Where was I? Oh that it's trigger
me again, Jim care And you see these grades right here.

Speaker 2 (46:30):
I got a feel myself, Well, you forgot to die
before you came in.

Speaker 1 (46:34):
You didn't want to look your Yeah, that's why I
put this on. It balances out, you know. If I
don't wear this and I wear a white T shirt.
You'll be going, we're doing a show with Bentley tonight.
Cookie what is his name? Oh dude did the cookies?
Oh yeah, yeah, you're famous. You got Dick Gregor here.
But you were saying about right, That's when I realized,

(46:58):
you know, that this wasn't about as much. You know,
me and Jim, Me and I Will had a run in.
Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah yeah aye, yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah.
I didn't find out that for fifteen years because he
never told me that. See, he came into that. He

(47:20):
came into the trailer and I was sitting down right,
He's standing over me like this, and he's like, I
appreciate that, man, I appreciate that. And I'm like, well,
what you're talking about? I always know to play it off, right,
you know what I mean. It's told well, I'm sitting down.
This was fifteen years later, or it was this was then.

(47:41):
Then I didn't find out why. Well, okay, because asking
him why then, but he wouldn't say nothing, right, And
I'm going, what's going on, man? Tell me what's happening? Man?
And since he was standing yeah, and I was sitting
a real nice fella. I mean that that's that's about physics.

Speaker 2 (47:55):
Right right.

Speaker 1 (47:56):
So I'm like, you know, man, what's going on?

Speaker 2 (47:58):
Man?

Speaker 1 (47:58):
I mean, hey man, he said, appreciate that, you know
what I'm saying, and Jada's going will will I'm saying,
but I mean, what what's happening?

Speaker 2 (48:05):
Man?

Speaker 1 (48:05):
Now you tell me what's happening. You know, when the
dude bottle lift about to do something, he might do something, right,
So I'm like, you know, I did the I did
the whole you remember the snake, Yeah, I did the snake. Well, well,
what you know, and got up and then I was like,
you know, so what are you talking about?

Speaker 4 (48:25):
Man?

Speaker 2 (48:25):
And I was still in that prostut, so you didn't
really know what he was actually talking about.

Speaker 1 (48:29):
But I know what he was doing. So I was like,
come on, man, I mean, what's up? Just tell me
what's up? Yeah, you know what's up? You know. So
finally I just said, this is a small place and
people are here, you want we should talk about it,
me and you outside because it looked like you can
need to get something off your chest, right, And then
Jada was like, oh no, no, no, no, no y'all,

(48:51):
no y'all. And I was like, what do you mean, Nah,
y'all tell him, tell him? And that was the end
of that, right, you see. And I never knew it
wasn't until my book came out years later where I
counted that as one of the things that really bothered
me and hurt me bad, because I didn't know when

(49:12):
I look up to him and I love him to death, So.

Speaker 2 (49:16):
You really didn't know why he was upset. You had
no earthly idea that it was because of an on
screen kids or a tip the kids or what was
going on.

Speaker 1 (49:25):
No, you know, but I ain't know why when I
was taking the subway up with my cousin uptown to
the Bronx. I ain't know why when we were fourteen,
and why these nineteen eighteen twenty year olders on the
other side of the train and looking at us, going
what what, We'll bust your ass what? I ain't know

(49:45):
that neither. But I still was like, huh right, you know,
waiting for that damn.

Speaker 2 (49:49):
So fifteen years later, how did you find out?

Speaker 1 (49:53):
This is how I found out. I put it in
the book, you know, and I found out about you
can't put something in the book about somebody unless they
sign off on it right, right. So I was like, uh,
you know, I don't want to put stuff like that
in the book anyway, But I was trying to be
real honest about my experiences so I can show that
you can go through anything and still be successful, right,

(50:16):
and still be a good person, you know what I mean.
And I was able to do that. But it's not easy,
you know, but you can do it, right. So I
went to his best friend, Charlie Matt. You know Charlie Max.

Speaker 2 (50:30):
I remember the song Charlie Matt. Everywhere we go down
town to a show, we have two necessities, Charlie Mack
and the limo.

Speaker 6 (50:36):
Right.

Speaker 1 (50:36):
Well, that's like Charlie Ma. You're gonna see him at
every game. If it's a super Bowl, it's it's if
it's the Kentucky Derby, You're gonna see Charlie Mack. And
that's Will's best friend. So I called Charlie and I said, Charlie,
and what do you think about this? He said, yeah,
you do? You know Will Will cool cool? And Jada
cool too. She said, you give me the quote and
I'll send it to him, and you know, and they'll

(50:57):
call you. They call you Tom. I send it to
call me and Jada she said. They said, yeah, go
ahead and put that in there. Go ahead and put that.
And what I put was that I that I thought
in the book. I thought the only thing that could
be possible was The producers came to my trailer right

(51:19):
when we were on the last scene and it's a
kissing scene, and they said, the kissing scenes now, not
later on tonight. We got to do that now. And
I said, but I haven't rehearsed with Jada. That's the
most important rehearsal that you can ever have your lips
on a female on screen. And so I was like,
we never got a chance to work that out. You

(51:40):
can make it look real if she's working with you
and everything right without kissing, right, And so I said,
I can't do that. I'm not doing that. I'm not
doing it. They said, well, we'll ask her. So it
went and came back. She said, just go for it.
And even then I was like, I ain't just gonna
go for it, you know, but I know I have
to make it look real. So I'm trying to make
it look real. And she's kind of uncomfortable about it, right,

(52:02):
you know. But we got through it, and you never
could tell. That's all I wanted, right, was to get
it to play into the film. Right, that's all we want, right,
you know, you at T one wrong block right. I mean,
y'all you know it ain't like the receivers out here,
all the glory all is blocking, you know what I mean?
So you got to do it right, right. So I
got it in there, And so they called me and said, hey,

(52:25):
that is what happened. Wow. Yeah, And I didn't find
out for that long. It was more than fifteen years.
I was about back in two thousand, so it's more
than that long, right, So I saw that side, you know,
And there's nothing you can do in certain circumstances as

(52:46):
far as I'm concerned, the way that I grew up
and saw things right, you know, I made it a
good observation after trial by ass whipping right, right, Okay,
when emotions is high, common senses at all time? Low? Yeah,

(53:07):
common sense is at all time, and how low can
you go? You see what I mean? So knowing that
fact and just sticking on to what I learned when
I was a little kid, you know, my brother and
sister being white and me being black wasn't a big deal.
To me until I found out I was black. I
grew up in Fort Collins, Colorado, and Wyoming, Okay. Found

(53:29):
in the trash, took it straight out there, and I
thought I was a brown one of whatever we were
because I saw litters. So a black cat can have
a white one, a brown one, a stack of one.
I thought we were born like that, and I'm a
brown one of whatever we are. Right well, we got
the DC King had just got shot. There were riots,
and the black kids the next day were whipping our
ass all day and they were saying, get the white cracker,

(53:53):
and get the white cracker lover. This is the things
I learned, right, you know, And I was I was going,
this is stupid. So I went to my mother, I said,
why are they attacking me? Seeing I like white crackers.
I like gram crackers, Ram crackers. You don't gotta have
water with it or nothing. You just chewing. Get you
to the apple juice and you're good, white cracker. You

(54:13):
be like swartz niggas in total recall, you know. So
so I found that out, and then that's where the
first time I heard the word nigga, you know. Okay,
Because we moved to the suburbs. Then it was like
kill the nigga. And I'm five, I'm riding my bike

(54:33):
a whole truck of white boys barely getting in the door,
people throwing stuff through the window. Nigga, this nigga that.
So I went to my mom and I said, who
are these niggas we gotta stay away from, you know, yeah? Yeah,
And she told me, she said it's one of her speeches.
She told me, hey, that's what people are. Color called

(54:55):
people your color when they don't like them. Said what
color are you? She said, we're white. I said, know,
you're beige because I learned my colors from the grounds.
She said no, but that's what we call ourselves. And
so I said, well, what does nigga means? She said, well,
that's what That's what I mean. What is what is
white cracker means? She said, that's what your people call

(55:15):
our people when they don't like them. I said, well,
what color are they? She said they're black. I said
they're not, They're brown. I'm a brown one, and like, hmm,
that's that's that's where my my whole as a child.
That messed me up for a long time because I
couldn't believe that I was divided by my loved ones

(55:39):
by the color. And I always thought that that was stupid.
But it's real, right, you know, it's real. It's not
really real because I am right about the litters and
I am right about us. Because when we were in
different civilizations and different colors. Anytime we would come up
on another civilization that was a different color, the girls
would go those guys look pretty hot, and the guys

(56:00):
we go to them, girls look pretty hot, and dustly,
we started mixing. It is the same thing. You see
what I'm saying. Take a DNA strand you know that
wasn't because we exchanged DNA all right, you know that's
more like d and p's you just skip. I know,
but I'm just I'm talking to him. You know, I

(56:20):
better stopped it. I'm good. So but that but that
was was the catalyst. And I think I found my
purpose in all that, you know, And that's why I
feel comfortable saying I'm her greatest accomplishment, because I believe
I was. I think she did that on purpose, Jamie.

Speaker 2 (56:41):
I read that you and Jamie didn't always have the
greatest relationship on set. Seemingly, you guys did a movie together.
Did Booty call? So were you able to what what
caused the friction and how were you able to get
past it? I got shot out to Jamie, shout out
to Jamie and prayers to you. Yeah, man, Jamie.

Speaker 1 (57:04):
I called him like, I'll make it a practice to
be the first person to call with something like that.
I called Still. I was one of the first people
to call Still. She'll actually call me back, he said,
thank you? You know what I mean? Because we was
all like, what you kidding me? The number one due?
You know what I mean, Like never again? Like we
was like, good God. But I compare it to you

(57:26):
and Derek, You and dere Derek Thomas, both of y'all specimens,
both of y'all special. Both y'all got speed. Both y'all
can do what y'all do at the highest level. But
on Sunday we thought that friendship out the window? What
way out the window? Way out the window? Because it's
a game as long as we remember that, you know,

(57:48):
once the game is over and hey, okay, cool, But
sometime we don't remember that, right, you know what I mean?
It takes time and maturity to get to the point
where you start seeing it Yeah. It was a game
that was tied into my career, you know what I mean.
So we had our we had our back and forth,
you know, we we had our negative, negative clashes.

Speaker 2 (58:09):
You know.

Speaker 1 (58:10):
One of the things I observed about uh what Hollywood
personalities sometimes experiences an inflated sense of self and are
engaged in an extreme amount of negative competitivism. You put

(58:33):
those things together and gee, you know, you know, look
what happens. And I ain't got to point it out.
You can see it in every every aspect of what
we do.

Speaker 4 (58:45):
You know.

Speaker 1 (58:45):
I love that guy. He's like the funniest dude ever,
you know, jealous at times because he's so sweet with it.
He's sweet with it.

Speaker 2 (58:57):
Man, he could the way he see you know, I'm
like metaled, I'm like man man. Obviously community man has
range Range did that ray thing?

Speaker 1 (59:09):
Yeah he didn't ray, Oh yeah he did. He did
when he was in the Movee with Tom Cruise. Yeah. Man,
he was the catcher cab driver. All the stuff that
he did is lovely and I'm a human. I want
to do that too. You see somebody hoisting it right,
you want to hoist it right, right. That's just natural.
Good friend, of mine told me that's natural to do that,

(59:32):
because it's natural to want something that somebody else has, right,
you know what I mean?

Speaker 2 (59:37):
But just because I want because I want to have it,
that doesn't mean I don't want you to have it.
I just see you you got it, and I feel
comfortable that I can get it.

Speaker 1 (59:47):
That's what I was going to say. He said, the
worst thing is when you don't want something for somebody.
Yeah right, yeah, yeah yeah no, So that that propensity
that's in me, I have to find ways to see
it straight in balance. So I got asked by TMZ
one time. Right, they came to me and they was
totally rape. You know, Jamie's James kicking ass man. He
just finished Sunday the Woman, Sunday, that that movie and

(01:00:10):
this and that, No, the any given Sunday. He's over here.

Speaker 2 (01:00:15):
He's doing that, He's doing that and doing this. Man,
he's doing all these things. Man, you know, how do
you feel about that? And I said, I said, I
beat him in Ping Pong seven and nothing skunk, and
he put the paddle down, he won't go no more.
And I played and I lost him, lost him, lost him,

(01:00:36):
lost him, lost him. Two seasons in a row overtime
ping pong games. Finally I got my touch. Now, oh
you got your touch? Wrap, skunk, let's go again.

Speaker 1 (01:00:46):
Down. You see what I'm saying. It's like as as
silly as that, for real as that. You know, what
does it really mean? You know, if if I was,
if I was to judge my success on somebody else's success,
I sure I am looking at my blessings limited right, Yes, yes,

(01:01:10):
you know what I mean.

Speaker 4 (01:01:11):
I do.

Speaker 2 (01:01:11):
I do know exactly what you mean. Yeah, Because and
my thing is is that I hate I hate when
people say he or she didn't deserve that. Who are
you to say God made a mistake with my blessing? Amy,
you've heard that, Yeah, of course I have. Of course
I'm gonna talk about a transformation I think you made. Okay,

(01:01:32):
I think somewhere between the last Super Bowl and the
next one you made a decision and it was I
think it was a good one.

Speaker 1 (01:01:43):
But I'm not sure. You said football's over and I'm
gonna do me now. And the only rea, the only
way I saw that was I saw a commercial on
the Super Bowl and I was like shocked. It was
like about an investment company or something.

Speaker 2 (01:02:02):
Yeah, yes, chausy, but you had the dialogue down right.

Speaker 1 (01:02:06):
It's some stuff I can't even hardly say. You know,
because you got three percent, you got three percent this
and that, that, that and the other thing that you
had your hemming on calculator, how do you go to
the pre ratio? No, nothing like what you know? And
then watched it and watched it and watched it grow.
I thought that that was the period between that last one, right.

Speaker 2 (01:02:29):
I remember doing the commercial and you know, they did
let me add live, they let my person out me
and I, you know, when you and you're doing it,
I mean, I'm not thinking that. I'm like, I'm just
doing the thing, and I just remember the producing and
director and everybody said, man, that was don'tbelieve you, the
unbelievable job.

Speaker 1 (01:02:44):
You don't realize how good you did.

Speaker 2 (01:02:46):
And then when the commercial actually came out and to
have people say that I did a good job, and
then people, you know, I walk by and people say,
do you know how to calculate the pe ratio? And
that's kind of like, okay, I might, I might could,
I might could do something like this.

Speaker 1 (01:03:02):
Yeah you did it, you know where we're at. I mean,
it's just it's our internal calculators add up our own
stuff from internal experiences, you know what I mean. So
I saw it like that, you know, and I just
think it's it's you know, for me, it's a it's
a wonderful world because I'm here. You know, it ain't
no guaranteed. You know, a lot of beautiful, great things

(01:03:28):
happened like the Denver years for me because not only
was I invited by one of my best friends to
give the ring ceremony twice, I have I known you
the midic Fani.

Speaker 2 (01:03:40):
They are they are no, but they became my favorite
team for a couple of years. They did.

Speaker 1 (01:03:45):
How can you not you did? How can you you
a ride a lot? Listen, I'm in I'm I'm in
the booth with bowling right, meatballs on the request right,
I'm seeing one of the cheerleaders. I'm in there with
her parents, Pat's booth. They calling me, Neil, calling me chicken.
He called me at you know you're gonna be the

(01:04:08):
You're gonna be the Monday night game with Oakland, right,
come on on the field. Right. So you know those
were my NFL years. But I learned something too that
the the game doesn't stop on Sunday. It stops on

(01:04:30):
Tuesday because y'all go straight from there early monastrat to
the gym. And I was like, why are you arresting?
You know, and Marcus Allen taught me this. Marcus said, well,
this is the work down. You know. You can't be
up that far and then let all that stuff. You
beat them pulled something, so they work you work it

(01:04:52):
back up, and then you're rested so it can get
in place, you know what I mean, working and working
on stuff, working on fields, all of that, right, and
then Tuesday, you know what I mean?

Speaker 2 (01:05:02):
Yeah, I mean, I mean I was so I remember
we played Mike the Dolphins on a Monday night and
we ended up, you know, getting back. I think we
arrived back by the time we got to the plane
and got back, I think it was probably six thirty
seven o'clock. And so it's already Tuesday, and I normally
come in on Tuesday anyway. Okay, so I just changed

(01:05:23):
worked out and then went home. Okay, That's how focused
I was.

Speaker 4 (01:05:28):
Hold on.

Speaker 1 (01:05:30):
I know about Georgia boys, Willie.

Speaker 2 (01:05:34):
God yeah, yeah, Willie from Griffin Fridge and his brother
who Fridge and his brother you know, no day from
ak in South Carolina. Okay, see, I'm getting it. I
thought I was a negrologist. I got some. I got
Willie gall Herschel Walker, George Rogers. Those are the guys

(01:05:56):
that you would know. Obviously. Cam is from Georgia. Champ
Bailey from Georgia.

Speaker 1 (01:06:00):
Question where Dale Carter from?

Speaker 2 (01:06:02):
Dale Carter is from He's from Georgia.

Speaker 1 (01:06:05):
Where did Dale place? I don't know what DC played at.
Where did d Georgia? Though? Yeah? He he from Georgia.
Tell me he wasn't the coldon shut down? Yeah, I mean,
I'm the color shut downs in the league. Man, I
don't know what now, damn Lovedal?

Speaker 2 (01:06:23):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (01:06:24):
I think Dale and Dale. I think Dale is one
of the one of the best man him and Everson
Wallas Boy. Anyway, when you're doing that, you see j Lo.
She starts as a fly girl and now she's one
of the biggest stars. Did you did you?

Speaker 3 (01:06:39):
Did you?

Speaker 1 (01:06:39):
Could you project?

Speaker 2 (01:06:40):
Could you see that Jim and Jamie and j Lo
and and John Leblzambo? Could you could you foretell that
they were gonna be that?

Speaker 1 (01:06:50):
Yeah? Yeah, I could, because because I know that anything
is possible in that business if you're talented it, you know,
but it's the it's the other stuff that has to
line up. They have to line up, right, you know
what I mean. You know, there's the there's all these industries.
There's publicity. There's the agent industry. Right, there's a management industry.

Speaker 2 (01:07:10):
Right.

Speaker 1 (01:07:10):
There's the studios, there's the networks. There's all this stuff
that you know, you got to do right. You got
to do right and the next step and the next
step and the next step to get to that point.
So it's possible to do you know, it's possibly because
you can navigate it. It's persistence and all that good stuff.

Speaker 2 (01:07:29):
Right.

Speaker 1 (01:07:30):
But I never knew that some of them would stop
talking to me when they got to that point. Man.
So I never knew that because I was always curious,
you know how you did it?

Speaker 2 (01:07:42):
Man?

Speaker 1 (01:07:43):
I study, you know, like, so we had the number.

Speaker 2 (01:07:45):
When you was on working on Living Color, and then
all of a sudden they becomes something else. And now
all of a sudden, no longer.

Speaker 1 (01:07:56):
All remember her. I was like, you know, I remember
seeing her and this ain't no j LO bashing because
she's crazy talented, come on, can't put none on her.
And she's a great actress too, you know. But but
we used to hang out with me her my asks.

(01:08:17):
We used to go to dinner together, you know. And
I met her with Keenan that strictly business because he
brought her in my trailer. I was doing a movie
and I was like, what is that? Right? And then
she showed up to be a fly girl and she
worked her ass off. She worked her ass and she
was every day and she was messing around with scripts.
I was like, this girl gonna be something. She was.

(01:08:37):
So I saw her at the upfronts. It was me
and Danny DeVito and he's like, there's all there's there's
gentleman one place over there. You don't know it, right,
I'm like, yeah, I know her. So I go over
there and I'm like, what's up girl? Shoot man? You
blew it? What what is going on? She was like, Hey,

(01:09:00):
so what's going on? What's going to? You know? Just living?
Like you know, get some little carrot dip and I'm going,
you know what's in that carrot dip? You know, because
she's showed dipping my ass, you know what I mean.
And so so that happened once and then I was
on a face break I had to look around and
see if anybody saw that. Did anybody just see her

(01:09:23):
for the hatchet through my forehead? Like hey, you know?
And so we had the same manager at the same time,
so I just avoided her because you never know what
someone's going through that day. I could be misreading, right,
you know. I always got to get the love that
But that's from my profile from being the black and
between the white and all that. So I'm needy in
that way, I can admit that. But I do love

(01:09:45):
love right, Well, she might be.

Speaker 2 (01:09:47):
Listen, you can only judge a person by the experience
that you have half person. Right, she might be, she
might be a great person to CJ and Hollywood. Ah
my god, Jordan's right, but your experience and that that
moment was my love was not great.

Speaker 1 (01:10:02):
Right, And so I gave it some time and stuff,
And I never blamed the person, you know. I just
try to try to work with myself, you know how,
cause you hate you, You're right, you know. I had
to work on that. And so we had the same
manager at one time, and she was doing a video
up and up and in the block. Jenny jam from

(01:10:23):
the block block block block block block write that one,
and so he said, why don't you go and visit
her on the set, man, she would love to see you.
And I was like, nah, that's all right, that's all
right man. He's like, nah, man, come on, man, this
is you. Come on man.

Speaker 2 (01:10:39):
I was like, nah, that's all right, man, that's all right,
because one time is enough for me. You know, I
don't got to steal another base. If it's Wow wanting out, hey,
I'll get it. I'll wait till the next up. So
I go down on the platform and there she is,

(01:10:59):
you know, and I tell you the only thing that
saved me. I walked down the platform and she was
looking at the at the screens with all the rest
of the dancers, you know, and Benny's all proud that
he's standing.

Speaker 1 (01:11:11):
With me, you know, being a medemic, right yeah, yeah, yah,
yeah yeah. He put the last name on that. Okay,
all right, So him, man, you know what I'm saying.
So I get down to the to the end of
the thing and I look at her and Benny's going,
come on, let you here, man. I'm like, alright, man,
and I go Jennifer, what's up? And she goes.

Speaker 2 (01:11:35):
Hey.

Speaker 1 (01:11:37):
So that was like the last you know, I don't
know how she's gonna be when I see her next.
But the next time I saw her, I avoided her
right because I don't like feeling that way. I don't
want to be around anybody. It makes me feel like
I'm not You're gonna make me feel like I ain't important.

Speaker 2 (01:11:57):
You know.

Speaker 1 (01:11:58):
I worked at a hospital when I was fifteen, and
everybody that worked there was black and were in the
Korean War. All of them were veterans, you know, and
they taught me everything. They taught me everything about cooking,
everything about life. You know. Just imagine if they were
like that to me, you know what I mean. I
mean imagine that. You know. My math teacher, Mss Coleman,

(01:12:21):
Jewish woman, lived down the street from the elementary school,
and I couldn't get my math right. She was like
a substitute teacher, and she said, why don't you come
up to my house? So I go over to the
house after school and she would work with me on
math and work with me on math and work. I
was never that great in math, but I have more
confidence about doing it. What happened if she hey, you know,

(01:12:42):
so I just remember those things and that's just me
as an individual. That's all. That's just what makes the
furnace in me run, you know. And I delighted that
people come to me and say, man, came to you,
came to Afghanistan and you look at this. This is
the picture. You know what I mean? Yeah, we were

(01:13:03):
at your show in Kansas City, man, and my grandmother
came in. You took some pictures of her and everything.
She gone. Now, Man, but let me tell you something.
That was one of her greatest moments.

Speaker 2 (01:13:15):
When I look when you look back at you look
at the nineties, nineties might have been the greatest. Maybe
the saventies because they have somebody children, but the nineties
with Martin and Living Single and uh, living color. Will
we ever see black TV again like we saw in
the nineties.

Speaker 1 (01:13:35):
I don't think so. But we'll see black TV. Yeah,
you know it won't be the same sensibility, right, you
know you see black TV now, you know, see a
bunch of rich black chicks with range rovers having a
beautiful cocktail with Gucci purses.

Speaker 2 (01:13:55):
And we talked about the housewives.

Speaker 1 (01:13:57):
I ain't talking about nothing. I'm just saying. I'm just saying,
you see shows like this and and so here you are,
and they're there and they got it all, you know,
the American dreaming. But yet it's like, bitch, I slapped
your head off, you know, you know what I mean. Uh, well,
we'll see it. We'll see a mini series that's a
great one. It's a drama and it's the whole thing.

(01:14:20):
You know. But but you'll you know, you'll see somebody's gun,
the the the muzzle of the gum and someone's no.

Speaker 2 (01:14:28):
You know, you won't give it it now, you won't
give it to me?

Speaker 1 (01:14:31):
Now give it to me? You know, Sorry about that?
You know, that's what I'm I'm seeing. I'm seeing a
lot of that.

Speaker 2 (01:14:42):
But no more was back then, no living single, no
mark you were well, these shows were about about.

Speaker 1 (01:14:51):
The love about us, the love about the love about blacks.
And now we are you know, we got to be
loving and carrying based on the album. We were all
we had, you see, we were all we had so
and we were up against every odd you can imagine.
We have no work incentive, you know, y'all lazy. Well

(01:15:12):
what you gonna pay me? You know what I mean? Well,
if I'm lazy, why you sit up on the porch
with men and Julip and we out here picking how
do I get your trait and I do your work?
You see what I'm saying. So we lived through all
of that and are able to laugh and have joy
because that's our survival. But that's also who we really
are the first to forgive. You know.

Speaker 3 (01:15:35):
You know.

Speaker 1 (01:15:37):
If you if a black bird, if a white person
came to a black church, they leave their sanctified and
full of food. You know, you might go to white
church and be like, I don't know if I want
to step in there. You know what I mean. It's
nothing about the people itself. It's just a certain spiritual
aspect about us that came out of that tragedy. That's beautiful, right,
you know what I mean. So I love to see

(01:16:00):
see different manifestations of that. So Martin, this couple that
was trying to make their way in the world, you know,
living single, these black women who were like best friends
making their way in the world.

Speaker 2 (01:16:13):
You know.

Speaker 1 (01:16:13):
So, and what do we need most? We need help
making our way in this world. You know, we know
what the world is. You know, you got somebody shooting
up kids in the school.

Speaker 2 (01:16:24):
Can't do nothing about it because nobody would get them
from stop selling drug you know, all the stuff that
we we see, but somehow there's this this this membrane.

Speaker 1 (01:16:35):
That keeps us all together, you know, right, you weren't
see before with Chris Rock. What's your relationship with Rock?
That's my man, that's where Man, we've been buddies for
so far. Back we were the first ones here in Hollywood.
It was me, Rock and Martin. We were the young ones.

(01:16:55):
We were the young guns coming in here. Did you
reach out to Rock when he went through that episode,
We'll I did it. Hedn't called me back though, but
he finally called me back, you know, yeah, I mean yeah, yeah,
you probably I know what he was going through. So
I was like, the first thing I thought about was
in Mama. I said, Man, she about to kill somebody
right now, you know, But.

Speaker 2 (01:17:16):
You're not surprised that he reacted the way that he did. Now,
when Chris said what he said, right, do you think
did you think it warranted that? No?

Speaker 1 (01:17:30):
But I ain't him, Okay, you know, I kind of
looked at what he was up against as him about
what I know about him, you know.

Speaker 2 (01:17:40):
But you said that day he might have just been
having a bad day. That might not be the person
that he is, But that was the person that he
was that day.

Speaker 1 (01:17:48):
I think it was fear. Fear can do some things
when emotions is high. Common sense at all time low. Right,
this is the first time that they actually even acknowledge
me to get it, Oscar. This is the one I
did my best job at.

Speaker 2 (01:18:05):
Right.

Speaker 1 (01:18:07):
I've been on social media trying to be cool through
this whole thing that's happening with me and my wife.
I don't got to go into specifics. If anybody had
a camera come in their house with them and their
wife or them as a marriage, they would burn their
house down to keep you out of their right because
some things ain't nobody business, correct. So he's dealing with

(01:18:27):
that and balancing his whole, his whole persona. He is
Will Smith, right, he never gonna stop. He always gonna
be the best. And to me, he's a winner, you know,
and we do. Any of us has to have moments. Yes, Yeah,
that's why the dude roll in sand. Let the first
one throw the stone without the sin.

Speaker 2 (01:18:47):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:18:48):
You know, if the whole world was out for we
all be sitting here going, hey, give me some water,
you know. And so I just thought it was fear.
But that's just my take because it was all on
the line. It was all on the line. It's like
it was getting really hot. You know, A person jumps
out of the World Trade Center at the one hundred

(01:19:09):
and eighteenth floor, and you go, why would they do that?
Because the pain got so intense. They didn't care. They
just want to really fast, you know. And I thought
that that's what really happened, was that he just was
extremely frightened about not getting in at what people think.
They're already thinking this thing, you know, and he I

(01:19:30):
don't say, I wouldn't say he was wrong for being fearful,
you know, but wrong for wrong for busting somebody in
the mouth. And he did nothing to you, you know.
Jada Pete can't put it on that no, no.

Speaker 2 (01:19:46):
No no, but her she heard I read when she
cut filming short so you could actually talk to your
birth mom.

Speaker 1 (01:19:56):
They're good friends, get okay, Jada from Jada's from one
of my best friends. Yeah, you know, we're real, real tight, right,
And she saw that something was wrong with me one day.
I don't know how you know how you know people yes, yes, yes,
and so were about to do the scene and I'm
laughing at joke, and she said, what's wrong with you?
I said, what you talking about?

Speaker 2 (01:20:15):
Man?

Speaker 1 (01:20:15):
Go ahead, girl, she said, something's wrong with you. What's
going on?

Speaker 2 (01:20:20):
Right?

Speaker 1 (01:20:21):
I'm like, what you're talking about? What's going on? She said,
something's wrong? She said, come here, what's happening with you? Like, girl,
what are you talking about? I said, I just met
my real mother for the first time. She said, that's it,
you guys, that's a wrap for the day. Go deal
with that. Man. You can't be exposed to that right
now and be normal under no circumstance. Go deal with that.

(01:20:45):
So what was the conversation? Like with you? So? How
long can you had never met your birth mother?

Speaker 2 (01:20:49):
Never?

Speaker 1 (01:20:49):
And so how old were you when this happened. I
think it was probably about thirty four. So you have
a conversation with your birth mother? How did that?

Speaker 2 (01:20:57):
How did so? What? How did conversation start?

Speaker 1 (01:21:01):
It was hard because she's like, hi, baby, and this
that and the other, like this ain't my mother, you
know instinctively, my gut, you ain't my mom, you know
what I mean? And so we talked and it was
really just kind of a kind of a house the
sunshine and that kind of thing. It's really good to
meet you, you know, And she's like, likewise, you know,

(01:21:24):
stay in touch in that thing, did you? Ah? Yeah,
I did. But I went through a lot over that
because it triggered some stuff in me that was from
so far back. As long as I wasn't exposed to her,
I never would have started experiencing the things I experienced inside.

(01:21:44):
I started really experiencing like like using using anxiety, man
like like low low low sadness and and and anxiety,
and like I started feeling really crappy and and I
didn't expect it either because my mom never told me
she would go do that. My mom, she said, I
got your mom on the phone, your real mom, and

(01:22:06):
I found her randomly in the database because she worked
at Housing Urban Development, so she saw her name and
she said, this can't be her, and it was her.
You want to talk to it? I was like, I
don't know. I want to say it now. Well, I
don't know. So what question did you have?

Speaker 2 (01:22:20):
Did you have?

Speaker 1 (01:22:21):
Why did you give me up? Why didn't you keep me?
We didn't get to it then. It wasn't until later later,
you know, we did we actually did therapy together. Wow,
you know, and we actually got to the point where
I remember going to visit even I saw the whole family.
So I was filled with george just to see people
of my color that looked like me, looked like all

(01:22:42):
my little kids. We got the same little nose and everything, right,
So that was good to see. But I went over
there just to really visit the family, right, and on Easter.
Easter was the day my natural brother lost his life,
died that day. So I was like, let me just
go over there, give love to that, you know, I'm

(01:23:04):
I'm I'm a person of the world. And so as
they were doing the prayers, she and she's a Baptist minister,
so she goes around the country, you know, doing that,
and so she's going to say the prayers, and during
the prayers, she started saying Tommy was a hard baby
to take care of. He had whelps all over his body,

(01:23:24):
you know, and he would bleed over those and he
cry a lot. It's hard to take care of it.
And his mother stole her from him, from me, and
blah blah blah blah, that's not the time, right right right,
So I'm there, yeah, man, that that it hurt, but
I'm babba Davidson's son, though, right, So I just said,

(01:23:44):
took a deep breath and I took over. I said, you, guys,
I don't think. I don't think today is about that.
You know, that was so long ago and the world
was so different back then. You know, I'm the person
that I am now, you know, and and who's so
who from it doesn't even matter. It's it's it's a
it's a it's a miracle really because here I am

(01:24:08):
part of both of y'all. You see what I mean,
And this is the day that we should be thinking
about our man, his homegoing right. And after they dropped hands,
I was like, I looked at my nephew, who I
loved so much, and my bigger brother, who remembered me
being left my only two only the two oldest ones

(01:24:28):
remember me. The rest of them are like, you mean,
my brother's don't live a color you crazy? They were
crying like, oh man, it's so good to see you.
When I first met him, and it was on Christmas,
my brother like a big brother, could do you notice
he walked me to the elevator. He told me, look
at me right here, I'm your brother, your big brother here,

(01:24:53):
And I was like, yeah, okay, you know that's it's
one of them things that you got to you gotta
give them that you ain't gonna you see what I
mean that he meant it, and I left out of there,
and then one of her sisters, one of my mother's sisters,

(01:25:15):
stopped me at the stairs and said, good for you,
good for you. Somebody need to tell her something, you know.
I said thank you, and then we left, and then
my nephew turned to me as we were driving, he said,
you know what, Tommy, I think what happened just now
is probably the best thing that ever happened to my family,
you know. And I was able to convince her to
come to therapy, you know, with my mother, and we

(01:25:40):
did it and that's when it all came out. She
was there in that kind of denial. And it was
a family session, right, So all family families talk about
their issues, and then they have a group of people
that trust each other get feedback.

Speaker 2 (01:25:51):
On what she was trying to place.

Speaker 1 (01:25:53):
The blame r else other than right, right, And everybody said, Tommy,
I'm named after her country girl, Tommy Jean.

Speaker 2 (01:26:00):
Right.

Speaker 1 (01:26:00):
So my mother gave me her name right right, And
everybody was saying, hey, you know, it sounds like you
blame it on him, and then that's what it sounds like.
It all of them had feedback. So when it came
back to her, it was like it was something to watch. Wow.
She started trembling and she went into like a like

(01:26:24):
a seizure like you know, and she was on herself
and threw up and all that stuff. And then they
came back and got her together, and she came back
to the room and she told me what happened. Wow,
she said, I was scared. She said, I was nineteen.
I already had four kids. Wow. I was seeing a

(01:26:47):
guy who was fifty something, who already had a family,
and it was rich. He was rich in country terms,
because I'm from Greenville, Mississippi.

Speaker 2 (01:26:55):
Oh okay.

Speaker 1 (01:26:55):
So if you're an undertaker, you know you up with it,
you know what I mean. So I was his chick
on the side, you know. And plus I got I
got strung out on heroin. So I was out the streets.
I had the kids, and I was losing it, man,
and I got scared. I got an opportunity to go
to Detroit or to move the kids to Milwaukee, and

(01:27:18):
I just left you. I just put it out of
my mind. You know. She was crying hysterically, and then
I saw her in that, in that state, and I
was able to forgive her because I saw it. But
you dealt with some issues of your own.

Speaker 2 (01:27:37):
Did that traumatic experience play a role in what you
ended up having to deal with and what you had
to overcome?

Speaker 1 (01:27:43):
I think it was all of it. It was it was,
it was all of it. It was just my life
up to that point, you know, And it was a
meant to be processed that I had to go through,
you know, to get to know God a little bit
better and get to know what his intention was from me.

Speaker 2 (01:28:05):
You know.

Speaker 1 (01:28:07):
I was going through like like the the bottom, you know,
and I dealt with everything, drugs, drink, all of it.
And I was in my in my bedroom by myself
in the dark. All my good friends were like gone,
like we can't, we can't watch this. So my friend

(01:28:28):
God bless him in his family major brown from they
from Tosa, Oklahoma. I never see no black folks like
that ever. I never see I never met black black
people from the South. Y'all were a revelation to me. Y'all,
old y'all are whole different thing. Man, So they sent
me a prayer I'll tell you how different y'all are.
Major went, I went to visit his family, and his
grandmother answered the door, right, she about ninety. She opened

(01:28:52):
the door and she said to him, give it to me.
I was like, huh, she said, give it to me,
and he's standing there. She said, come on, give it
to me, and he did his Easter recital word for word.

Speaker 2 (01:29:10):
You know.

Speaker 1 (01:29:10):
It's a different thing, you know. So they sent me
a prayer cloth right from the whole family, prayed artist,
you know. And I put it between my Bible and
I was like, ah, man, it works, So I guess
of whatever, right, right? And then his sister called me

(01:29:33):
thing and I picked up the phone and she said,
you know what, Tommy, She said, sometimes we just have
to hang. We have to hang in there. We got
to hang like he did in pain and have faith
that it's going to pass.

Speaker 4 (01:29:48):
Right.

Speaker 1 (01:29:49):
She said, you think that felt good? One here, one here,
one here, and he's and his body weight is only
holding him. You think that felt good? Crowd of throwing
on his head, right, Even he doubted it, even at
the point he was saying, what the hell right? But
that faith right? Right, she said, sometimes we just got
to hang in that pain. And I hung in it.

(01:30:12):
How hard was it?

Speaker 2 (01:30:14):
Look, I'm a firm believer it's a lot easier going
through something in private. You're a public person and you're
going through your addictions a public figure in a public way.
Did it make it more difficult? Did it make you
a shame? Did it make you withdraw?

Speaker 1 (01:30:33):
Actually, in ways it did, but it didn't because I
got to the point where it didn't matter. It wasn't
about that. It's about me, right, It's about me being
alive and me being able to enjoy what life has
to give me. Because I really didn't know. My Auntie
told me, you ain't know no better, you know. I

(01:30:54):
remember going to her when I had a year sober.
I said, all y, I got a year sober, and
she said, now don't you feel better? Said? Yeah, I
feel better. She said, that's all the matter is that
you feel better. And she said, I got to go
to the store, you know. So it was like one
of those things where I had to dig in and

(01:31:15):
do the work so that can keep the life I have.
And I had to realize that it was good in
the first place, you know, And there was a lot
of stuff shrouding that stuff. That's why I wrote the book.
I wrote the book because if I can do it,
then others can. And if I be specific, that's why

(01:31:36):
I don't go into the specific. And that's why I
got my book, because it's a one on one experience
when you read it, so you can get to it.
And I also did the voice over so you can
really hear one on one, you know. And that was
my gift back to the good universe and to the
God I know, and to all the love that I
got from all the people you know that didn't even

(01:31:59):
know me. You know, when I lived in when I
when I lived in the Midwest, when I was a kid,
I never heard the word nigga from a white person.
White person. White people ain't the same. They' all don't
think the same, they' all don't hate us. I don't
care what nobody says. I'm speaking from my experience.

Speaker 2 (01:32:20):
That's all you can speak from.

Speaker 1 (01:32:22):
Right. How can I become me and not know that
as a fact, right, right?

Speaker 2 (01:32:27):
Right?

Speaker 1 (01:32:28):
So it just became a very important book for me
because I realized that I can take all those experiences
that I went that I paid for through through sadness,
through despair and all of that, all of that, and
let me put it in a book that they can
grab and go through and maybe they can compare what

(01:32:53):
they're going through, well what I was going through, like
I did with books, like I did with stuff people
gave me. Let me pass it on, right, let me
pass it on, Mount Rushman. Who's your Mount Rushmore? Comedians me? No,
it was Prior.

Speaker 6 (01:33:16):
Eddie Hm, Cosby, Fox j Red Jamie Red.

Speaker 1 (01:33:29):
We're talking about stand up, stand up comedy. I'm gonna
forget his name.

Speaker 2 (01:33:35):
Prior Fox, Red Red, No, Prior Fox Cosby Red.

Speaker 1 (01:33:43):
Red Fox is the same person.

Speaker 2 (01:33:45):
Yeah, yeah, okay, well you know Richard p Yeah, Red Fox, Right,
Bill Cosby, you got one more?

Speaker 1 (01:33:52):
I get one more.

Speaker 2 (01:33:52):
Yeah, that's what that's about.

Speaker 1 (01:33:53):
Rushmore. You got four heads on about Rushmore. O'kay fine,
uh no, not a bonus, nope, skip No, I'm just kidding, Skipper,
give me bone. No man, hands be old too. You

(01:34:16):
just can't see it.

Speaker 2 (01:34:17):
Uh So, So.

Speaker 1 (01:34:21):
Bernie, I'm gonna have to say, George Carlin, I'm gonna
have to throw him in there.

Speaker 2 (01:34:27):
I thought you were gonna go Chappelle.

Speaker 1 (01:34:28):
Oh man, But that's my contemporary.

Speaker 2 (01:34:31):
So you know what, that's the exact same thing. Smooth said, Damn,
I had JB.

Speaker 1 (01:34:36):
Smooth.

Speaker 2 (01:34:36):
Then he said, man, it's great as Chappelle live. He'll contemporary.
I can't put him up Yeah, yeah, it's not. It's
not like but I put him up there because I
don't understand that. Boy, I don't understand him. You know,
I'm sweating by the end of the show because that's
the way I do show. He can stand there and
smoke a cigarette. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:34:58):
You know, it's something that about him and the times
that we're in right where he's able to make everybody
laugh during these circumstances, and that got to take a genius.
You know, he grew up in my neighborhood, right in
my neighborhood. Yeah, he used to be scared of us, right,

(01:35:19):
like even still today. I'm like, that's a long time ago, man, right,
you know what I mean, Like, you know, we're always different.
But it's just the amazing things that he can do.
He can say some things that nobody can say. He
tell a story, man, he can tell no one can
say that, and he makes it.

Speaker 2 (01:35:35):
You know, I'm saying, I guess there's truth that you know,
there's truth in comedy, and he can tell he can
tell a story truthfully and make it funny.

Speaker 1 (01:35:45):
Now he looks like Schegel. I'm just kidding, but but
I'm just saying I'm a big lord of the ring.
That's alone has nothing to do it anyway. I like
the name Schmigl anyway, so so so he's a he's
a genius and all of them is right. Man. Every
time I say I'm the best, I look at somebody

(01:36:07):
and go, well, you know, you know, hey, you got
some more work to do. Still, still, you know, because
it's the process, right right, You add things on, you know,
and you can always have room for growth.

Speaker 2 (01:36:21):
Well, I'm discounting your what you call them because of Murphy.
Better be on my rushmore too.

Speaker 1 (01:36:26):
I put him, didn't I?

Speaker 2 (01:36:27):
No?

Speaker 1 (01:36:28):
I put Eddie first, prior check the tapes? Did he
put erdie? No? Didn't I say Eddie first?

Speaker 4 (01:36:35):
No?

Speaker 1 (01:36:36):
I meant to say it first, though. You must be
talking about Eddie Haskell much. I meant to say Eddie first, though. No,
you didn't skip.

Speaker 2 (01:36:44):
No, No, Hey, I'm gonna get out of here.

Speaker 1 (01:36:48):
You got a few more, all right? P Diddy was
your assistant?

Speaker 2 (01:36:52):
What kind of My sister was P Diddy, because you
remember he had he had that reality show and then
he trying to find the sisters. He worked, he worked.

Speaker 1 (01:36:58):
Don't work the dog at him. Man, you work? Nah, Nah,
I did. I didn't have to. I didn't have to.
He was a hard worker. He was smart as a whip.
He's there for everything I need. We was out every
night in New York. He shook me to every club
and I knew he was gonna be something, but I
didn't know it's gonna be like that. Yeah, I knew

(01:37:19):
he was. That boy was smart. First thing he said
to me was you got get rid of his widow's peak.
And I was like, I ain't getting rid of a
widow peak. He said, but when he get on the
big screen, it's gonna look big. I said, Man, this
is mine. This way I do my thing. Man, strictly
business came on and I seen it. I looked like
a vampire with a shark fin Yeah, okay, I was like,

(01:37:41):
damn it.

Speaker 2 (01:37:41):
He was right, man.

Speaker 1 (01:37:43):
You know, he was sharp, and he's a cool kid,
a cool kid, and straight up I saw him bus
one of the one of the big Union dudes. In
the face you know, because the Union dude was up
on him. He tried to warn him, said, I'm just
dropping his bags off. You gotta get that out of here.

(01:38:05):
You know, I'm just tired that I'm in assistant. I'm
trying to drop his bag off. He said, get it
out of here, and get it out of here. And
now he said, well why am I? How am I
gonna put it too? And the big dude lunch and
he died, caught him with the corner of the corner.
Corner corner in the corner corner corner opened him up. Yeah,
in the corner was like, you know, you know, it's
like Denzel when he was getting whipped, you know in

(01:38:28):
Chlory and the terror came out that side, you know
what I mean. Right, Yeah, And he was calling around
and he called me and said I can't get out,
and I said, I come down there, and I just
tried my influence and my name and all that. They
said they let him out of his personal recognizance. And

(01:38:50):
that's one person. He never forgot me never. We still
we still like that. Wow. You know, he shortened me
because I'm older than him, you know what I mean.
But shorty man, he's He's gone to a whole nother level.
I wish I could talk to him sometimes. I wish
we had that that that because I can help him
to I see right, you know, but I think I

(01:39:10):
can help everybody. But I wish I had an opportunity
to do that.

Speaker 2 (01:39:13):
But I do.

Speaker 1 (01:39:14):
I just can't choose who I'm gonna do it with
right anything you like to promote. I know you're a musician,
but you got a website. I got a website.

Speaker 2 (01:39:22):
What is it? I don't know.

Speaker 1 (01:39:24):
I'm asking you.

Speaker 2 (01:39:25):
Is your website Tommy Davison?

Speaker 1 (01:39:27):
My website is d Tommy Davidson. What the Tommy Davis
dot com? As a matter of fact, so what is
the website? What are you doing on the website? Everywhere
you can get me? Everywhere. You can get my music,
you can get my tour, you can get clips. I
got a tie line. We've been meeting to bring you
that ever since you got on TV. We got to
send you some everything that I've done, sketches. You know,

(01:39:48):
everything about me you can and it'll take you to
It'll take you straight to TikTok, straight to Instagram. It's
like my central central.

Speaker 2 (01:39:55):
Place, you know.

Speaker 1 (01:39:56):
And I've just been blessed. You know, I gotta I
got a new single out. I know it's called I
know my new song. I know with Richard Elliott, I
broke it into smooth jazz. Who knows where I'm going
to go next? You know, I've been able to get
into the smooth jazz industry as a singer. When I
saw Jamie as a singer, I was like, Okay, that's
good because he broke it in. But I wanted to

(01:40:17):
do that. But I had to find the right lane
for me, right right, Like what does the coach bring
to your to your teams? They bring their philosophy right,
how they work it right, and then you guys kind
of shape it with what y'all do you know when
we did this at this school or whatever, they can
modify it and not be too too rigid. Right, No,
that's what we're doing. And how many coaches that we've seen, yes,

(01:40:40):
gone because this is the system that exactly. So that's
kind of how how I looked at music. Where can
I be most successful? Now? Where can I have it
be something genuine you know and real about me with
the music, and how can I help the listener? Okay,
you know when I see her kids listening to what's

(01:41:01):
going on in the radio now, I don't really see
a lot of stuff that can really help them grow
and be and be much much stronger, you know, spiritually stronger,
mentally stronger. I just don't see that happening in the
music that's coming out of them. You know, I'm gonna
do the music that's natural to me and just let

(01:41:23):
it be, you know. I'm just stay in my lane
and just do what I do and just let it
kind of flower from there, because I've been a musician
and a singer since i was a little kid, you know,
and so I'm just I'm doing like Plexico did. Plex Goo. Uh.
They had them an interview, right all.

Speaker 2 (01:41:44):
Right, plex Goo you you you shot yourself in the
in the leg. You were in jail, you know, a
whole year off. You hear in the super Bowl you
catch the clutch, catch to close this thing out?

Speaker 1 (01:41:57):
What what what do you?

Speaker 4 (01:41:58):
What do you?

Speaker 1 (01:41:59):
What do you take for that? He said? I just
asked God this morning, if you just get me to
the field, I'll appreciate just that.

Speaker 2 (01:42:10):
Ray, Ray, you were up for a drug I mean
the shootings. You were about to go to jail, as
a whole season. The Patriots put up a thing, this
your your party. You end up getting MVP and the
big old dancing Hoiston. What are you attest to that?
He said, Well, I knew God would have put me

(01:42:30):
through such a trial unless there was.

Speaker 1 (01:42:32):
A tronymph behind it. I got brand new ears where
I can hear, I can hear it. The Obannons won
the national championship, right, and they were the last seed
and all this, and they asked them, you know, how
did you do this? And they said, we went this
season by faith and not by sight, you know. And

(01:42:53):
these are the principles that that I think are important
for me. Right, But this is my society too, right, Right,
because I'm Africa, just my cultural culturally African, and I'm
an African American here doesn't mean I'm outside of humanity, right,
I'm a part of humanity too. So why can't I

(01:43:14):
speak on all our behalf? Everybody else do?

Speaker 2 (01:43:18):
Right?

Speaker 1 (01:43:18):
Exactly? I got I got some input, right, and it's valid. Right,
you know, if I wasn't worth nothing, they wanted to
have brought me over here.

Speaker 2 (01:43:33):
Here you go.

Speaker 1 (01:43:33):
We got it done, man, We got it done. That
was years of passing each other. Man. Yeah, thank you man,
thank you for let me talk. Man.

Speaker 2 (01:43:40):
Thanks for sharing your story.

Speaker 1 (01:43:41):
You got it. Really appreciate it. Shay Shane, tell me Davidson.

Speaker 4 (01:43:46):
All my life, grinding all my life, sacrifice, hustle the price,
want to slice?

Speaker 1 (01:43:52):
Got all my life? I've been grinding all my life,
all my life, grinding all my life, sacrifice. I should
play the price. One slice to pull the dice.

Speaker 4 (01:44:04):
To swap all my life.

Speaker 1 (01:44:05):
I'd be grinding all my life.

Speaker 3 (01:44:11):
M hm

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Shannon Sharpe

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